Tag Archives: programming

VirtualBox‘s Seamless Mode creates an illusion that you are using applications of a virtual machine and applications of a physical machine in the same computing environment. This way, you don’t really have to switch in and out between the two computing environments (i.e., one is virtual machine and the other is the real machine). I created a video to show VirtualBox’s Seamless Mode in action and walk you through how to activate VirtualBox’s Seamless Mode. You can check out the video right after the break. Enjoy!

I had heard a very smart person said this once, “Everything comes down to finance!” Is that true? Sure! One can just take a look at a situation of an unknown writer. He/she has to eat somehow, and his/her writing materials need to be published and brought in certain revenue or else there won’t be enough foods to fill a kitchen table.

The same goes for the Internet. No matter how elusive the Internet appears, it still comes down to finance. This is why net neutrality might not survive or might survive in only a comical form. Net neutrality does not serve some big corporates and political parties well. These entities might want to have more control over the Internet so it can be easily manipulated at will. With net neutrality’s sensible regulations, certain situations at hand might be jeopardized, especially something has to do with financial matter. The bottom line is utmost important to the people who care not for net neutrality. Of course, we’re talking of a net neutrality that favors the small guys the same way it favors the big guys.

I’m not an expert on net neutrality at all. In fact, I don’t know much about net neutrality, but I do know that net neutrality intends to treat all contents on the Internet equally. By this, I mean the contents from a big corporation are not anymore important than the contents that I’m producing now in the context of making the contents available for the mass consumption. This is so important for the open Internet, because nobody can unfairly have advantages in the presentations of certain contents.

Just imagine net neutrality works against the open Internet somehow and allows cable companies to throttle Netflix‘s Internet traffic, this would definitely work against the consumers and Netflix. The consumers will not be able to use Netflix efficiently, and Netflix will not be able to stream movies at recommending data speeds which might prompt customers to look elsewhere for entertainments. Consumers have less choices in entertainments, and Netflix will not be in business for long. OK, this scenario is only hypothetical for now, but how do we know it isn’t so in the future?

This is why I think net neutrality should not give even one inch to whoever and whatever entity that want to manipulate net neutrality unfairly or destroy net neutrality’s most sensible form. Well, it seems net neutrality is now under attack while we speak. Huffingtonpost’s article “Net Neutrality Is Under Attack… Again,” points out that some politicians are working to manipulate net neutrality to favor big companies only. Of course, I’m not going into the details, because you can read the article for yourself.

Treehouse is a new educationalweb service which promises to help guide whoever interests in developing the skill set in web design, web development and iOS development. Besides promising in training whoever to become a developer in the specific technological areas, Treehouse devises a unique strategy for whoever wants to get hire in their industry. Treehouse’s strategy is to allow whoever in their programs to take quizes/tests to unlock badges. The unlocked badges would be presented on a Treehouse participant’s profile. According to the available unlocked badges, employers would be able to theoretically have a better chance of knowing who might be a good candidate for them to set up an interview with. Treehouse charges the participants with either $25 or $49 per month. The $49 per month plan would include additional materials such as more tutorial videos.

In my opinion, nowadays it’s very easy to learn how to become a web designer, web developer, and iOS developer without having to pay a single dollar. How? iTunes U is the answer! Computer users don’t have to use Mac to have access to iTunes U, because they can install iTunes on Windows machines. After installing iTunes on Windows machines, users can open up iTunes and navigate to iTunes U to download videos that teach users how to write programs in different computer languages, developing iOS applications, designing websites, and a lot more. iTunes U isn’t for just these specific areas of study, because iTunes U allows users to learn just about any available open course of different universities. Don’t be fooled by having to navigate to iTunes Store before one could check up on iTunes U, because iTunes U is indeed free! It’s free to download educational videos so one could watch it at any time.

With knowing that one might not have to pay to learn how to become a developer for the information industry, it might be hard for some people to imagine about paying for programs that provide by educational web services such as Treehouse. Nonetheless, Treehouse looks attractive to some people, because they think Treehouse might be able to allow them to find jobs that they’re specialized in (e.g., web designing, web development, iOS development). I surmise that some folks who already have the experiences in these technological areas might just join Treehouse to unlock badges so certain employers might come around and interview them. This will do if one believes Treehouse will be able to attract enough attentions from various employers of big companies and so on.

I’m not sure Treehouse will definitely be a solution for whoever wants to get a job as web designer or web developer or iOS developer. The ultimate decision will have to rest upon the shoulders of the employers from various companies in regarding to hire specific Treehouse participants. Perhaps, Treehouse participants might get the exposures they need for getting interviews, but they still have to score the interviews before the employers hire them. As I mentioned earlier, Treehouse isn’t providing unique learning materials, because one can just download the similar educational materials within iTunes U. If iTunes U isn’t carrying certain educational materials, there might be other places and sources for one to acquire such educational materials.